Build Your Own Luck
by LycoRogue
Summary: Everyone knows about the lucky charm bracelet that Marinette gave to Adrien, but where did Marinette get it in the first place? Why did Marinette have such faith in it? Perhaps Adrien got a bit more than luck when he accepted the bracelet. Perhaps he also got a taste of familial love.


****A/N: This started as a simple thought experiment while I was working on my next large ML fanfic project. It then became headcanon for me. And it just ballooned from there...****

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 **\- Build Your Own Luck -**

Marinette sighed as she rested her head against the cool counter top of her family's breakfast bar. She lazily held up her bit of yarn and blindly fondled for another bead to thread onto it.

On the other side of the counter, Sabine sat up straight and threaded a few beads onto her own bit of string. Her poise and attention to her project suggested she made jewelry for a living, instead of pastries. Her eyes drifted from her bracelet to the plastic bowl on the center of the counter as Marinette's fondling for a bead caused the bowl to gently rock.

"Something wrong, dear?" Sabine nudged the bowl closer to her five-year-old daughter so Marinette wouldn't have to reach as far.

Marinette's fingers stopped moving inside the beads and she pivoted on her stool. She hoped that shifting so her back was more towards her mother would help her avoid answering the question. As she swiveled around she accidentally pulled the bowl with her, knocking it onto the floor.

"Marinette," Sabine softly scolded. She calmly placed her project down and moved to clean up the beads.

"Sorry, Mama!" Marinette jumped off the stool and frantically scooped the large plastic beads back into the bowl.

"It's alright, sweetie. You just need to be more aware of what you're doing next time." Sabine knelt next to her daughter and helped her clean up the beads. She tried not to react when Marinette responded with a pout and slumped shoulders.

"Sabine?" Tom opened the door to the joint living room and kitchen, traces of flour still patched his shirt.

"Down here, Tom." Sabine waved her arm to signal where they were.

"Oh, there's my favorite ladies!" Tom walked over to give hugs and kisses to his wife and daughter when he noticed how frazzled Marinette was. "Everything alright?"

Marinette huffed and roughly placed the bowl back onto the floor, spilling some beads back out. She then slumped against the base of the counter, hugging her legs.

"Just having a bad day I think." Sabine gathered the last remaining beads and poured them into the bowl. Picking it up, she stood to put the bowl back onto the counter, and gave Tom a kiss on the cheek.

"I think I know the cure for that." He smiled at Marinette before trotting over to the TV and picking up two video game controllers. "What do you say, partner? How about a quick game of _Mecha Strike_ before dinner?"

"No!" Marinette pulled a stool in front of her so she could hide behind it.

Tom awkwardly kept the second controller held out as he gave a quick glance to Sabine. She shook her head and shrugged. After a beat, Tom knelt to the side of Marinette so he could see around the legs of the stool.

"I thought you liked that game. That's okay. You can pick whichever one you want." He again offered the controller to her.

"No!" Marinette scooted to her right and shifted the stool so it was again blocking Tom from her.

"I thought you liked playing video games with your father," Sabine chimed in.

"Nuh-uh. I don't like video games. They're stupid! I'm not good and Papa can beat them without me so he doesn't need me. I'm not his partner. Partners are both good."

Tom somberly stood up, the controllers barely still in his limp hands as they hung by his side. He looked over at Sabine. Her mouth was agape, and her eyes sparkled with a veil of tears threatening to spill. Tom felt pale and his chest hurt. Video games was how Tom and Marinette bonded. They had great times as a family, but video games was their private thing. Their Father/Daughter thing. He wasn't ready to give that up, especially when a five-year-old thought she should be as good as a grown man who had been playing games for over two decades.

Sabine knew Tom couldn't let Marinette give up simply because she felt inferior. Her face slowly hardened with determination before softening again with a hit of coyness. She gave a subtle nod to the bowl of beads, even though Marinette couldn't see Sabine signaling anyway.

Picking up on his wife's idea, Tom fought back his smile. He put the controllers away and once more knelt by his daughter.

"Okay. No more video games. How about you show me how to make jewelry instead? You have the beads out already. What do you say?" He slowly pulled the stool away from Marinette and offered her his hand.

"Yeah. I can do that," Marinette meekly replied.

She stood and Tom helped her up onto a stool. He then pulled another stool close to her and sat down. He watched with earnest interest as Marinette showed him the bracelet she had started. The beads were a hodge-podge. Some were so tiny they barely threaded onto the thick yarn. Others were big and clunky. There were even some whose holes were so much larger than the yarn thickness that they constantly spun as Marinette shifted the center of balance. One was even so large that it sometimes slid over the tiny one beside it, hiding the smaller bead inside its hole.

Marinette grabbed a bead from the bowl and showed Tom how to thread it onto the yarn. She then mocked tying the end closed to show him how to finish the bracelet.

After Tom completed his in-depth instruction, Sabine cut him a length of red yarn: Marinette's favorite color. Tom gave his wife a subtle smirk, and she winked back. Marinette was too enthralled with her renewed excitement for her bracelet to notice the silent conversation her parents just had.

Tom began muttering to himself as he carefully searched through the bowl of assorted beads. "No. No, not that one. Not this one either. Too big. Too small. Wrong color." He was careful to be loud enough for Marinette to hear him, but still soft enough that she'd think he didn't mean for her to.

Sabine calmly threaded more beads onto her bracelet as if she couldn't hear anything Tom was saying. Marinette, on the other hand, stopped working on her project as she concentrated on her father's mutterings instead.

"Ah ha! Sabine, what do you think about this one? Will it work?" Tom selected a thick, pink bead with white lines marbling through it. It also had a matted texture to it, instead of the smooth plastic the other beads had. He rested it carefully on his palm, and held it out to his wife like it was a prized treasure.

"Let me check." Sabine laid her bracelet out in front of her so her hands were free. She then cupped Tom's hand with her left as she hovered her right one just over the bead, as if reading its aura. She pulled Tom's hand in close and closed her eyes.

Marinette climbed up onto the counter so she could lean in close as well, trying to see the bead and what her mother was doing.

"I think this one has great potential." Sabine opened her eyes, gave Tom a large smile, and pulled her hands back. "Marinette, on your bottom please." Sabine brushed her fingers through the bowl of beads before she found one that worked with the bracelet she was making. Without another word, she threaded her new bead onto her project and continued her work.

Tom held the pink bead up to his eye and inspected it. Marinette slid off the counter, but stayed on her knees so she could get a closer look at what her father was doing.

"Yeah, this one is perfect." Tom threaded the pink bead onto the yarn, letting it dangle in the center.

"It's gonna fall off, Papa!" Marinette pointed to the ends of the yarn. "You need to tie a knot first, remember?"

"Thank you, sweetie." He patted her on the head before resting his yarn on the counter. Leaving a long tail behind, he tied a knot in the yarn, and then slid the pink bead against it, testing that the knot was large enough to hold. "Like this?"

"Perfect!" Marinette grinned before going back to her own bracelet.

Tom went back to his meticulous search for a second bead, but Sabine rested her hand on his.

"You need to anchor the first bead still. Tie another knot so it won't move. That will keep the energy inside the bracelet."

Marinette again stopped as she watched her parents. Tom released a heavy breath and nodded, as if he couldn't believe he forgot this important step. He tied another knot right up against the opposite side of his first bead. It was never coming back off that bit of yarn. Marinette held up her own bracelet and wondered if she should have put a knot between each bead as well, but Sabine's bracelet didn't have any extra knots.

"All good?" Tom held up the yarn, and Sabine nodded. He then went back to his search, again muttering about the value of each bead. Towards the bottom of the hole he dug in the beads was one of the super tiny ones. A red bead about the size of a pea, but the hole took up most of the bead. It would still be easy enough to thread onto the yarn. "Ah, this one." He delicately picked up the red bead and fought to slide it onto the yarn, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth as he concentrated.

Again, Marinette's focus was completely on her father. She didn't even notice Sabine finishing up her bracelet and trying it on.

Tom tied another knot, and it was almost as large as the bead he had just slid on. Another deep dive into the collective of assorted beads. More rejections. More muttering.

Marinette gave up on her own project as she also began searching. She found a thick blue bead with white marbling on it that made it look like a cloudy sky. It also had the matted finish, so it would match the first bead Tom had found.

"This one, Papa?" She held it up proudly.

"You think it will work, Sabine?"

Sabine pulled Marinette's hand close and cupped it like she had done with Tom's. Hovering her hand over the bead, she hummed to herself.

"This one was a very good choice, Marinette."

Grinning widely, Marinette bounced a little on her stool before handing the bead over to Tom. He slid it onto the yarn. Holding up the slow progress he made, he nodded to himself.

"I think I need a nice big one now. Oh, like this one!" Wedged against one of the sides of the bowl was a flat, green, square bead with a flower carved onto each side.

"A green flower means 'Luck'. That is a great find." Sabine nodded approval. Tom slid it onto the bracelet.

"No knot, Papa?" Marinette pointed. Tom hadn't made a knot after putting the cloudy sky bead on.

"Nope. We need the rest of the energy to flow throughout the bracelet now. But it can get really powerful, so we'll need a nice dark color next to trap it."

"How about black?" Marinette snatched up the first black bead she found. Tom smiled and quickly threaded it onto the yarn.

"Great. And next is..." He found a yellow bead that looked identical to the black one. He slid that on quickly. "There. Black and yellow together like bees. That will mean it will be a hard worker."

"What will?" Marinette rested her hands on her father's lap to help her get a better view of the bracelet he was making.

"The good luck, of course. I'm making you a lucky charm bracelet. It will help you with a lot of things, especially playing video games." He paused and looked down coyly at his daughter. "That is, if you still wanted to play video games with me."

Marinette ballooned with excitement before rocking back onto her stool. "Yes, please! I like playing them with you!"

Sabine muffled a chuckle before giving Tom a knowing nod. He discretely winked back.

"Well then," Tom boomed, "we just need one more bead. A big one to hold all the love I'm going to put into it. That will power all the good luck."

Marinette pulled the bowl of beads close to her and carefully tipped it over so the beads were on the counter, but still in front of her. She then shifted through them, becoming as picky as Tom was.

"Oooh! This one! Papa, does this one work?" She held up the thickest, smoothest, largest pink bead she could find. "Pink is the color of love! And you'll have one on each side." She pointed to the matted first bead Tom had put on the yarn.

"Let me check that, Marinette." Sabine held out her hands.

Marinette cradled the bead carefully as she stretched out for Sabine to see. Her mother again read the aura of the bead before kissing Marinette's fingertips. "You chose well, sweetheart."

Marinette nearly fell off her stool as she spun to hand the bead to her father. Tom quickly caught her with his large hand before accepting his daughter's offering.

"There." Tom threaded the last bead on and tied it off. He then looped the remaining tail and knotted it again, testing that it was secure.

Tom scooped up Marinette, and carried her over to the sectional as Sabine cleaned up the beads.

"Your mother knows a little something about ancient Chinese magic," Tom explained to Marinette as she settled onto the seat. "And over the years she's taught me a little as well."

"That's why she was doing that weird thing with the beads?"

"Yep. She was testing to see if they were magic and lucky." Tom took Marinette's hand in his own and draped the bracelet across her wrist. "And I think we all did a really good job with capturing some good luck in this bracelet."

He slid the long yarn tail through the loop he made on the other end. He then tied the tail off, securing the bracelet onto Marinette's wrist. It was a little big still, and slid around when she shifted the angle of her arm.

"I think you'll do a lot better at video games now that you have this. Want to try playing a game with it?"

" _Mecha Strike!_ " Marinette squealed. She slid off the sectional and grabbed the controllers. She passed one over to Tom before scurrying back to the game console and popping the game disc in.

Sabine smiled as she finished cleaning up the beads and other crafting items. Marinette giggled and squealed as she and Tom began beating up the boss. Sabine didn't expect the placebo to take such quick effect, but Marinette's reflexes and eye-hand coordination already looked better. Marinette's mech helped get Tom's out of a jam a couple of times. It didn't take long for her to really start looking like his partner in the game.

"We did it! We beat the bad guy!" Marinette did a goofy victory dance when they won the first round.

Tom laughed and pulled her in to give her a kiss on the top of the head.

"We did, sweetheart. You really helped me out, partner."

"Partner!" Marinette agreed.

Then Marinette and Tom both thrust their controllers forward, calling out "Boo-yah!"

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 ****A/N: How did this become 2500 words long!? This was supposed to be a simple little thing to post on tumblr, and hopefully some fanartist will be like "OH! I NEED TO DRAW THAT!" Because, frankly, I need to see this now. :D I love this idea and will fight you about it!**

 **Anyway, the whole thought experiment I fell into was about the creation of The Bracelet in the first place. It has always been pretty clear to me that Marinette didn't make it, at least, not recently. I didn't think Manon made it for her while babysitting, and I also didn't think Marinette randomly still had a beaded bracelet she made when she was young. For me, the only logical conclusion was that Tom made it for her, which is why she told Adrien it helped her do better at games.**

 **Also, can I just say how amazing Tom and Sabine are? Relationship and Parenting Goals right there! They are the true treasures of the Miraculous universe.****


End file.
